Sound Mixer on Set!

Ok, Wow I haven’t had a chance at all in 2013 or 2014 to post anything! I m very sorry, yes i mixed a lot of movies last year, so far a record high(8). But anyway that’s another blog conversation, lol! It was a wonderful union working year!!!

But lets talk about the movie Old fashion directed by Rik Swartzwelder and shot in Southern Ohio in a very very small town! It was a very cool experience for me, because i had to do all the wiring of the lavs and things on the talent plus plant mics and other tricks, which was fine until i realize the director had to play the lead role in the film due to unforseen circumstances,,,!!! Soooooo Holy smokes, your kidding me right, now there is no room for mistakes right!! You called it, so lets just add to my already nervousness to mix at the cart and run out to adjust wires, boy ohhhh boyeeee, lol! Well as you can imagine i lived up to my rep for being a Good Sound Mixer and it went off without a hitch, built a wonderful relationship with the producers and the director and was able to help with voice over work and all the ADR needed to really add more life to the scenes in the near future. Lets talk about the adr session for a minute, i understand why most sound mixers just stick with doing sound on set and not stepping into the post world especially if it’s a film you mixed and you get a call about ADR!! You cringe like what did i do wrong , all man i thought i covered this and that, adr for whattttttttttttt??

Wiring talent never stops even in the studio!

Old Fashion in Studio76 ADR session

Yep the director is chilling watching his monitor!(up top)

This session proved that Adr isn’t all about what the mixer did wrong or planes, trains and lawnmowers being to loud, sometimes there is dialog that needs to be added or voice over from the characters thoughts, or a few quick lines when the camera cuts behinds the actor head and you can slip in a few extra words that just make the scene jump right at you emotionally!!! Wow , what do you know, this is how Adr is also used, i have to tell you i felt 1 million times better,, good grief, hahah lol! This was one of the most exciting ADR sessions i have ever had and the cast that stop by were all amazing and like family! It was all smiles and lots ,, lots and lotsssssss of laughing that week! I have to say Rik is an awesome director and I pray to mix his next big adventure as well! Speaking of big adventure, check this out Old fashion the feature has been released Valentines Day Weekend 2015 and for a small indie film only in select theaters it reached $1.1 Million Dollars at the box Office and has now gotten selected to open in 100 more major cinema’s. Old fashion is a true love story of how relationships come to life and should take their time to blossom which is the grounds for a strong and lasting marriage with a prosperous future!!!

Yes he is mic’s and boom in the ADR booth for his added ghost lines while his head is turned to build the scene! so awesome

If you get a chance make sure you check out Old fashion In theaters now February 2015, please take your girlfriend or significant other, it’s a warm love story with beautiful cinematography and of course super Digital Marlowe Taylor, CAS sound! lol

“Old Fashioned” Opening nationwide is a remarkable feat for this totally indy film. All of our marketing has been good old fashioned grass root in nature via word of mouth and social media thanks to all of you.

Old Fashioned was filmed on location in Tuscarwaras County, Ohio. Your continued support in spreading the word is paramount to the films success.

Thank you so much!

Finding a theater near you!

In Northeast Ohio near Cleveland the film will open at Cinemark at Valley View located at 6001 Canal Road,
Valley View, OH 44125 (216) 447-8820.

It’s here folks and tomorrow at Cinemark in Valley view at 7:40pm show the director Rik Swartzwelder and a few actors will be there for q&a and meet to greet, so come on down folks and make it an Old Fashion night, come out and support a wonderful Indie Film!

Old Fashion Mixed by Marlowe Taylor, CAS Sound Mixer!

it’s a BIg Crane Shot!

Yep we are just chilling, I love my job!!

I took a selfy lol! while i was mixing right before i rolled sound!

A small reminder

There will be an “Old Fashioned” talent appearance on tomorrow Friday 2/20 in the Cleveland area.

The totally indy film “Old Fashioned” filmed in Ohio, opened nationwide this last weekend and earned an estimated $1.1 million at 224 locations. That seems to be the biggest weekend ever for a faith-based movie playing at fewer than 300 theaters according to Box Office Mojo -http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4026 , and we’re adding 100 screens this weekend.

Ok, if you didn’t know, Underdogs the movie is finally out and available for purchase. It is at both Best Buy and Walmart for only $9.96!! That’s amazing price for a such a good movie which sold out every night of its screening at the Cleveland Film Festival “CFF” and in Akron, Ohio leaving standing room only. I just can’t begin to tell you how amazing it was to be the Locations Sound Mixer for this movie. It was exciting and full of energy ranging from cheerleaders and pump up football players tackling and running and the director needing my mega phone to talk over the crowds screaming! How did i mic all this stuff, well sometimes i ask myself that same question, lets say it had some non repairable outcomes, but i did get the audio and that’s the most important part,lol!!! I chose to capture the stadium crowd cheering and yelling with stereo schoeps mic on x/y set up, hidden plant mics on certain benches throughout the stadium , 1 senheiser mkh60 and mkh 70 all recording 8 tracks of audio at one time using my Zaxcom Deva recorder and 4 Smqv letrosonics wireless transmitters. It was a fun and awesome sound and you can hear it in the film ,my actual location recording of the real fans reactions and stomping their feet,so digital!

This movie is full of major cast including all time great NFL champ Joe Namath, head coach played by D.B. Sweeney, quarter back played by Logan Huffman and Maddie Hasson his possible love interest. Other actors include William Mapother, Richard Portnow, Maddie Hasson, Keith Loneker jr and Natalie Imbruglia plus many more to name, just get the movie and you will see.

It’s a must see and enjoyable Pg13 rated film, Underdogs was the first film i learned i had to upgrade my antenna’s to reach across the football fields and further into the beyond,,lol. There was a lot of challenges and that’s why i was excited everyday onset! So cool of film to be part of once again with such a warm hollywood cast , including my kool photos with Joe wearing his super bowl ring which was amazing.

Yeah i am wearing Joe Namath super bowl ring! awesome, so digital

The movie was directed by Doug Dearth who did a extraordinary job making this film one of the most talked about movies in Ohio to this very day! I have film crew folks still bringing up Underdogs and how it was the best film and a must see movie, from story line, to struggle along side life’s frustrations from being an Underdog at the bottom riding to the top as Joe Namath later explains in the film.

The film debuted at the Cleveland International Film Festival in April and won the Local Heroes Award for the best movie about or by Ohioans. I have to tell you, watching this film for the first time over the holiday was so refreshing and Digital, aka that means awesome if you’re not hip yet!

I have to say in closing we had so many locations, one of my favorites was mixing in this wonderful mansion with a custom-built indoor bowling alley and golf simulator suite! yes i said it, plus amazing indoor pool with waterfall rock wall and arcade, you dream of it and its there!

I have to say shooting a scene with richard in the private 747 jet plane was so amazing, make sure you see the movie Underdogs its one heck of a good film with awesome actors and cool locations if you can’t tell from my few photo’s! So make it a Underdog year and join the club with a dvd!! It’s a must have in your collection!!! until next blog, Stay Digital folks!!!1

Katherine Heigl, Tom Wilkinson, and Linda Edmond are in Cleveland shooting the indie comedy “Jenny’s Wedding,” until the end of November. The mixer on set is veteran Dr. Marlowe “Mauly T” Taylor, a producer and sound mixer based in Cleveland and member of IATSE 209. Dr. Taylor chose to outfit his cart with RF Venue antennas for all the talent and crew wireless audio, and hasn’t looked back.

“The Diversity Fin and CP Beam are my superman antennas,” Taylor said. “These antennas have simplified some very complicated issues. We were having a lot of RF static and the signal strength was very low. We were basically running our previous antennas out on 50 to 75 feet of cable all the time. Plus we were getting attenuation with these long cable runs and had to use all sorts of boosters. It was getting crazy.”

Taylor is now using a Diversity Fin to receive the Lectrosonics Venue + UCR411 A HM plugs and talent packs on the “Jenny’s Wedding” set. A CP Beam pulls stereo from the Mix 12 and feeds to an ARRI Alexa via Senheiser IEM recievers. And he uses an additional CP Beam for the Lectrosonics T4 IMB com system used to communicate with the boom operator and crew. Taylor is also using a Zaxcom mix suite including Mix12 and Deva IV plus ZOOM H6 with Timecode safety.

The Diversity Fin is a hybrid antenna with one LPDA and one dipole element oriented at 90 degrees for optimum polarization diversity, and elimination of multi-path interference. The CP Beam is a high gain circularly polarized helical antenna that is lightweight and collapses for compact storage.

“Earlier we had a scene in a fire station,” Taylor continued. “Katherine and Tom were inside on the second floor, and I couldn’t get my cart up the stairs. I was able to raise my antennas up and shoot right through the brick wall without a problem, full strength. We started using both Diversity Fins and CP Beams rigged on a boom popped up 12 or 15 feet above the cart to get a clear shot to wherever they are. My cable just sits coiled up on the cart.”

Taylor has mixed countless features, docs, and TV shows, including the Sundance indie hit “Kings of Summer,” football feature “Underdogs,” and the 2014 made for TV movie “Love Finds You In Sugar Creek.” Dr. Taylor gets his title from PhD work at Ohio University, where he also received a Masters in sound. In addition to sound work, he has also taught at Cleveland State University.

Dr. Taylor was introduced to the RF Venue line by Pro Sound’s Rich Topham. “And let me tell you,” Taylor said. “For the ‘Underdogs’ football movie we made with Joe Namath using the RF Venue antennas, all the audio went back to L.A., and the director and post mixer told us that 99% made it into the final film. They needed almost no ADR and said it was the cleanest and sharpest audio they’ve ever had. They actually thought I was a mixer from California, not from Ohio!”

"3 Day Test" Actress Megyn said something funny, I bust out luaghing!!LOL

I haven’t had a chance to blog in a while, it has been a very Hollywood fun filled year for me as a Locations Sound Mixer!!! Yeahhh, i am so please to have met so many great and super cool folks among our film crew from all parts of the world. Some have been grumpy and allot very happy, film sets brings the best out of every one when it comes to doing your job with long hours ahead of you, in the end at the wrap party everyone is smiling and laughing about

We would Laugh all the time on set of "3 Day Test"!

things, just like family. I wanted to talk about the feature i mixed for actor director Corbin Bernsen called “3 Day Test” which debut top of this year. It was a funny family driven feature where the dad Martin played by George Newbern comes up with the idea of isolating his entire family from the outside world for 3 days of endurance to survive off of nothing, yes nothing!!! No water, no electric, no gas for 3 days never to leave the house right at christmas time in the winter< and yes i said no gas which means noooooo heat and don’t flush to much either, hahah lol! The mother was played by Megyn Price and oldest daughter Taylor Spreitler along with little sister Francesca Capaldi and little brother Aidan Potter. This feature was difficult for sound because the actors had to dress in layers of coats and hats and under garments to play the roles, and how can you mic a kid with layers on, wuuu weee it was tough. But in the end my team knocked it out and we finished with success and it turned out great.

I am very happy i had the scheops cmc series 4 with interchangeable heads and senheiser mkh 70, we had some challenging situations outside which is where the 70 shines, even for the shouting scene where corbin is yelling about the toilet hitting the dads car in the movie, it captured his dialog perfectly at 35feet away. I believe you have to choose the correct microphones when your on set, it really helps your job go allot smoother. Trust me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When you have a chance, please check out the film, it was so cool to catch the premiere , one was in LA and Akron Ohio. While Corbin was here i had the pleasure of working with him again on another project, I hope he returns soon! So check it out folks, “3 Day Test” directed by Corbin Bernsen with plenty of cool hollywood stars, what a pleasure! My favorite actor had to be Francesca Capaldi, she was wonderful and full of energy everyday, with smiles and all! She is currently on the show “Dog with A blog”, so check her out. I have to give a super shout out to Megyn Price for all her comfort during the stress out moments onset, she made my day every time , check her out she is on “Rules of Engagement“ on tv now.